Atoms for Peace Pull Music From Spotify

Atoms for Peace have removed their music from Spotify. Band member (and Radiohead producer) Nigel Godrich announced the move today in a series of tweets, in which he said that the music streaming service is "bad for new music."

"The reason is that new artists get paid fuck all with this model. It's an equation that just doesn't work," Godrich wrote. "The music industry is being taken over by the back door and if we don't try and make it fair for new music producers and artists then the art will suffer. Make no mistake. These are all the same old industry bods trying to get a stranglehold on the delivery system. . . . Plus people are scared to speak up or not take part as they are told they will lose invaluable exposure if they don't play ball. Meanwhile millions of streams gets them a few thousand dollars. Not like radio at all."

While Godrich acknowledges that the service might make sense for established artists with huge catalogs, he says that the model doesn't hold up for new music.

"Some records can be made in a laptop," he noted, "but some need musician and skilled technicians. These things cost money. Pink floyds catalogue has already generated billions of dollars for someone (not necessarily the band) so now putting it on a streaming site makes total sense. But if people had been listening to spotify instead of buying records in 1973 I doubt very much if dark side would have been made. It would just be too expensive."

In keeping with what Godrich described as a "small meaningless rebellion," Atoms for Peace's album Amok, which was released in February, is no longer available on Spotify. Godrich also removed his band Ultraista's 2012 self-titled album, and Atoms bandmate Thom Yorke removed his 2006 solo album, The Eraser.